The present invention relates to a tool and more particularly to a tool for rotating the crankshaft of an internal combustion engine manually.
When the valves of an internal combustion engine are adjusted it is necessary to rotate the crankshaft to make these adjustments at specific points in the engine cycle, and the crankshaft is usually rotated by hand. Typically, this is accomplished by turning the vibration damper which is similar to a small flywheel and is usually mounted on the end of the crankshaft opposite the side of the main flywheel to minimize vibrations due to torsional resonances in the crankshaft which could cause bearing damage. In small engines such as those used in the average personal automobile this poses no great difficulty.
However, in the massive engines employed in racing and drag vehicles, this is a virtually impossible task, even when the spark plugs are removed to relieve the compression, requiring the mechanic to remove the crankshaft bolts to gain access to the crankshaft directly for making these adjustments.